Helping women in the real estate sector succeed was the key message at the Illawarra’s inaugural Women in Property breakfast at North Wollongong on Tuesday.
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Dozens of professionals from the industry attended the Property Council function from architects to selling agents, property managers and other prominent women in business.
Illawarra Regional Manager of the Property Council Jancey Malins said plenty of research showed gender diversity could potentially give businesses a competitive advantage.
“Companies that have men and women on their boards outperform companies with male only boards,” Ms Malins said.
“Only the smart [businesses] are walking the talk with their recruitment, flexible working and remuneration policies.”
Ms Malins said women still faced a glass ceiling in the property industry so events like the breakfast were critical to providing support for women already in the industry and those thinking of joining the ranks.
Keynote speaker at the breakfast was Jane Jose, CEO of the Sydney Community Foundation, agreed the property industry was not as gender diverse as medicine or law.
“In architecture, there are a lot more women working in the offices, bu they’re not really leading the design of major projects,” she said.
However, Ms Jose did believe attitudes were changing.
Property Council NSW executive director Jane Fitzgerald was also at the breakfast to congratulate the region for its commitment to the 100 Women in Property program.
The initiative aim to promote diversity in the property industry across Australia by asking its members to personally advocate for and promote the career of a sponsored talented, up and coming woman.
“Cultural change is partly about achieving critical mass and this program creates a talent pipeline right to the top,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
MMJ Wollongong’s Tracy Preston, from their commercial management division, is one of the program participants and discussed her opportunity on the panel of speakers.
“I’ve been in the property industry for 20 years, I came in wanting to be in the commercial property industry but now knowing when I got in there the actual diversity there was,” she said.
“Property actually allows you to have a career that is so much broader than selling houses or building blocks wherever it might be.”